The NYT has a narrative, reality be damned.
[IsraelTimes] After PM’s office says account defamed troops and citizens, as well as the premier himself, paper says the response ‘does not refute the facts’The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
on Sunday dismissed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s denial of a July 11 investigation that concluded he has prolonged the war against Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
in order to stay in power, declaring that the response "does not refute the facts."
According to the lengthy Times report, published Friday, Netanyahu has deliberately extended the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
against Hamas to serve his own political goals of rehabilitating his domestic image and staying in power.
Among the actions listed in the report were Netanyahu’s shelving of a Gaza truce deal that would have secured the release of at least 30 hostages, due to a threat by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to bring down the government. He also allegedly derailed a White House effort to secure Israeli-Saudi normalization that was conditional on ending the Gaza war amid opposition by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
In a statement released Friday night, then deleted without explanation and rereleased after Shabbat, the Prime Minister’s Office claimed that the Times’ coverage "defames Israel, its brave people and soldiers, and its prime minister," while praising Netanyahu’s decisions post-October 7 as leading to the "greatest military comebacks in history."
In its Sunday response, The Times stated that its investigation drew "on dozens of government records and military documents and interviews with more than 110 officials in Israel, the US, and across the Arab world."
"Our role as independent journalists is to report and disclose information vital to the public interest, and to hold leaders to account regardless of party. The statement from the Prime Minister’s office does not refute the facts of that reporting. What the Times investigation shows in detail is how prolonging the Gaza war helped Mr. Netanyahu stay in power," the paper asserted.
In its report, the Times said Netanyahu’s office "declined several requests for interviews and did not respond to a detailed list of the findings" from the article.
According to the report, the Gaza truce proposal that Netanyahu scuttled in April last year would have created a window to end the war permanently and release the remaining hostages, similar to the deal currently under discussion in Doha.
Moving forward with the deal would have raised the chances for a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start..., whose leadership had been secretly signaling its willingness to accelerate peace talks with Israel if the Gaza war ended, the report said.
The Times also touched on Netanyahu’s troubled relationships with top security officials, stating that he repeatedly dismissed their assessments that growing internal rifts stemming from his government’s controversial judicial overhaul were being viewed by Israel’s adversaries as an invitation to attack in the lead-up to the Hamas onslaught on October 7, 2023.
During the war, Netanyahu’s mistrust of security officials grew to the point that he had generals patted down before meeting with him to make sure they weren’t recording the conversations, according to the report.
Netanyahu denies preventing Gaza truce, says polls supporting hostage deal are ‘manipulated’
[IsraelTimes] Amid claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s four-day visit to Washington last week failed to produce a ceasefire announcement in Gaza due to his alleged desire to prolong the conflict, the premier defends the trip as “very successful” and accuses Hebrew media outlets of misrepresenting both his intentions and public opinion on a deal.
“It was a very successful visit, following a major victory in Iran… We have a lot of tasks to do, and I’m determined to complete them,” Netanyahu says in a video update posted to his X account.
Responding to claims that he and his government are obstructing a deal, Netanyahu charges that Hebrew-language media “are always echoing Hamas propaganda, and they’re always wrong.”
“We accepted the deal, the [US Special Envoy Steve] Witkoff framework, and afterward the modified version that the mediators suggested — we accepted it, Hamas refused it,” he says, referring to the latest proposals being discussed in Doha.
“What does Hamas want? It wants to stay in Gaza. It wants us to leave, so it can rearm, so it can attack us again and again. I won’t accept that,” he continues, adding that “I will do everything to return our hostages. I’m meeting with the families, I know the hardship they’re going through, their suffering. I’m determined to bring the hostages home.”
Asked about polls showing that a majority of Israelis support a deal, Netanyahu argues that the wording of the questions fails to reflect the true cost.
“I’m also in favor of a deal — but they don’t say to you [in the questionnaire] the other side of things. That is, these are manipulated polls, they’re always misleading the public. They’re not asking: Do you want a deal for the release of hostages, that leaves Hamas in its place? So it can repeat its offenses of rape, murder, kidnappings, and invasions? No. Otherwise, the results would be the complete opposite.”
Netanyahu reiterates that “we must insist on releasing the hostages, and insist on the other goal of the war in Gaza: the destruction of Hamas, and guaranteeing that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel. That’s what I’m doing — I’m not giving up on any of these goals.”
In response to Netanyahu’s remarks, Channel 12 — whose Friday poll showed 74% of Israelis, including 60% of Netanyahu coalition voters, supporting a deal — clarified that the question asked respondents whether they supported releasing all the hostages at once “in exchange for an end to the Gaza war.”
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 